Outing III
Ellie was not joking when she said they were going to play every interesting ga the arcade had to offer, and by the ti they finished, it was already well in the afternoon, which suited their plans perfectly as it was just enough for their next destination.
It was an amusent park.
"It’s been a while since I last ca here," Ellie said with a beaming smile as the group stood at the entrance of the amusent park.
It was one of the bigger ones within the Citadel, and under normal circumstances, going to an amusent park so late in the day would generally be considered a bad idea due to how packed they tended to be.
Luckily, most of the citizens of the Citadel were still slaving away at their jobs, aning the place was more than empty enough for the group to use!
And use it they will.
’Master, this an obstacle course?’ Gale asked, sounding a little intimidated, and Osho didn’t bla him considering that this was his first ti seeing an amusent park and the rides it had.
He was specifically eyeing the big red Rollercoaster that probably broke every safety rule that existed on earth when it ca to making Rollercoasters.
’It’s not, don’t worry.’ He reassured Gale before rubbing his chin.
’Right, would these even have any sort of impact on Gale? With how fast he is, I doubt there is anything speed these things can move at to make it thrilling.’ He thought to himself briefly before shrugging. There was probably a way to circumvent that.
When the group walked in, Kurt imdiately tried to migrate towards the Rollercoaster, but his collar was grabbed by Ellie, who gave him a stern look.
"Best for last." The boy pouted dejectedly but didn’t try to argue.
"What about that?" Osho pointed at a large ride that had a spherical base where all the seats were and a long tal part attached to it.
"No ×4." The collective refusal caught Osho off guard.
"Why not?" He asked with confusion, and everyone stared at him with a deadpan expression.
"That’s the omnidirectional pendulum. It’s basically a death wish to ride." Osho raised a brow, unconvinced.
"Surely it can’t be that bad." He said with clear skepticism. At that, Kurt stepped forward and placed both of his hands on Osho’s shoulders.
"My brother. I understand you are practically immune to most things at your level. But trust when I say this, that thing shouldn’t exist." Osho rolled his eyes.
"You haven’t given a good reason for why it shouldn’t exist, though." He said, and they sighed.
"That thing," Irene said. "Is a problem. The part where everyone sits spins like a gyroscope at 3Gs, and that’s just that part spinning independently. The main stem of it swings you around unpredictably like a pendulum on steroids. There are asures in place to stop you from, you know, dying, but it’s straight torture to get on that ride without being decently strong first." She explained, and the others nodded in agreent.
Osho humd and rubbed his chin while staring at the thing with narrowed eyes, a spark of interest appearing within them. One that Ellie caught imdiately.
"So! How about we first try the mirror maze?" She said and the rest let out a sigh of relief, as though talking about the pendulum was ntally draining, sothing that served to pique Osho’s interest even more, but he decided not to say anything at the mont.
After buying tickets at the entrance, the group made their way to a decently sized building that had Mirror Maze written boldly at the top.
"Hm, says here that there are multiple paths to the exit. In that case, how about we split up?" Sam read a plaque near the entrance and gave her suggestion.
"Sounds like it’ll beco a competition for who can get to the end the fastest in that case," Kurt murmured.
"That’s why I pointed it out." Sam shrugged.
"Hm, I kinda wanna record our reactions if we go together, but..." Ellie rubbed her chin before shrugging.
"Alright, splitting up it is. But afterward, we will all follow an unexplored path together." She eventually said, and everyone nodded in agreent.
They went inside, and just as Sam had pointed out, there were multiple paths to go through. 8 to be specific.
They all picked the first five and gave each other glances before going through.
’That is trippy.’ Osho imdiately thought as he went in. This place was quite a bit different from the mirror mazes he was familiar with. First of all, the mirrors weren’t just on the walls but also the floor and ceiling. Second, each of them was fitted in seamlessly, making it look as though the entire place was carved out directly from one giant mirror while also making it difficult to spot any flaws that one could use to navigate. Third, Osho noticed that, to an extent, the mirrors could reflect Mana, making it difficult for anyone to navigate through the place with their Mana as a guide.
’Master, what is this place?’ Gale asked curiously. Osho had a feeling the bird wasn’t particularly perturbed by the effects of the maze, mostly due to how high his perception was, but that didn’t make it any less interesting to him.
’It’s a maze. It’s sothing built to be difficult to navigate through, and we have to find the exit.’ Osho gave a rudintary explanation which Gale seed to find satisfactory.
He tilted his head as if listening to sothing before saying.
’Oh. I found it.’ He said happily, and Osho sighed. He expected nothing less.
’Well, lead the way. But don’t rush.’ He thought with a faint chuckle, and Gale chirped happily as he hovered in front of Osho and started to lead the way, and as they progressed, Osho quickly realized that if he had tried to navigate this place on his own, he would have have a lot of issues.
The mirror placent was simply too disorienting as the light bounced around in weird ways. More often than not, he wasn’t even aware they needed to turn or stop walking until Gale signified that there was a turn.
Moreover, the effect the mirrors had to reflect his Mana was also interesting, and he couldn’t help but try and take advantage of such a phenonon to help make his Mana sense more effective. It was a long shot, but hey, free training.
He went at it for a while with limited success, as he seed to fail with each turn. But with each failure, he felt himself be urged even more, and he didn’t even notice that Gale had stopped progressing due to him no longer following as he seed engrossed in his task.
Were Ellie here, she’d take a jab at his hyperfixation, but she wasn’t.
’That’s interesting. Do they reflect all types of Mana? No, that can’t be right. It must only be ambient Mana. In that case, what type of Mana can and can’t be reflected?’ He thought as he continued his experintation, and after a while, he got an idea.
’What if I make my Mana take on a similar nature to other types of Mana?’ He thought.
Now, he wasn’t talking about transforming his Mana into other types of Mana. The only way he can do that is to transform his Mana into Sky Affinity Mana and everything related to that as that was the Affinity he possessed.
Instead, he was considering allowing his Mana to ’blend in’, so to speak.
He closed his eyes and gradually shut out the rest of his senses, leaving only his Mana sense and his connection to Gale. Ignoring the forr, he focused on the different forms of Mana around him.
Ambient Mana was, unsurprisingly, the most common form of Mana around. It was neutral and could be used by anyone with even a modicum of Mana control. It only began to change when it was in a different environnt.
It’s for this reason that any being who could use Mana experienced an easier ti regaining energy and found their Mana use to be more efficient when they were in a favorable environnt, and then there was no particular advantage grabted if they were on neutral ground since the Mana was also neutral, granting no advantage or disadvantage, and then they’d be in a disadvantage if they were in an environnt where Mana containing their affinity was scarce.
As Osho concentrated, he beca aware of the small sphere around Gale’s body that was packed to the brim with Sky Affinity Mana. It was the taphysical ’Sky’ that followed him everywhere as a result of his bloodline, and it shone like a beacon in his senses.
He ignored that, though, and gave his attention to the Mana around him. There was quite a bit of ambient Mana, which wasn’t surprising since they weren’t in an area that dictated otherwise, but there was also another form of it that was a but more prevalent than the others.
Light Mana.
It made sense. Not ntioning the obvious reason that was the mirrors, one was widely known effect of light Mana was its ability to reflect other types of Mana, including ambient Mana.
This, however, wasn’t omnipotent as there were many types of Mana and affinities that could bypass this effect. The most obvious one being dark Mana, but Osho couldn’t sense any of that around.
So he focused on the next best thing. Shadow Mana
Shadows and Darkness were two different things, contrary to what most believed. Darkness is the absence of light. Simple as that. While shadows are a product of light being unable to reach a certain spot due to interference or sothing similar. As such, shadows are actually closer to light than one might think.
Now, the thing about Shadows is that you can never truly get rid of them simply because light exists, and it isn’t sothing light can reflect off of due to its nature.
Osho recalled how Blavkie could ld into the shadows to beco invisible as light completely ignored her form, not reflecting in any way.
Gradually, he sent out his Mana once more, but as he did so, he kept an open mind as he didn’t release it in waves but small threads. Threads that interacted with the shadow Mana in the surroundings. Joining, tagging along with it, but not quite rging, simply sticking together.
The process was quite slow, but Osho was patient.
Soon, o of the intertwined threads reached the mirror and...
No reflection.
Osho grinned.
___
"I feel like I was peering into the 4th dinsion." Irene said as she massaged her temples while stepping out of the exit.
"If you did, then you’d be dead." Ellie said with a shrug, which earned her a glare. Then Irene blinked and looked around with confusion.
"Where’s Osho?" The other three glanced at each other before shaking their heads.
"He’s not out yet." That surprised Irene.
"Really? I was sure he’d be the first one out." She said curiously.
"So did we, but madness the oath he took just happened to be significantly more complicated than ours. Bad luck, basically." Kurt offered.
"Hm, that would make sense, I suppose. The plaque outside did say that the difficulty varied." Sam shrugged.
The two of them kept on chatting before Kurt saw sothing in the corner of his eye.
"Ask, and he shall appear. Look who ca last." Kurt said, trying to sound as mocking as possible, but Osho just rolled his eyes with a faint smile.
"Yeah, yeah. Y’all got out before ." He said, and they all raised their brows.
"You seem satisfied. What? Did you have so sort of sudden enlightennt that made the competition seem unimportant in comparison?" Irene scoffed, and Osho just smiled faintly, causing their teasing expressions to change.
"Wait, seriously?’
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